Appearances

Behind the Scenes

Background Information and Notes

In the opening lines of the Sam Hamm screenplay for the 1989 film, Gotham was described as if "Hell erupted through the pavement and built a city". The logic was that when the elevators were utilized for taller structures, the buildings that reached over a few stories were built around the existing structures of Gotham City. Those skyscrapers cast a shadow over the city that was coupled with the smoke from Gotham's industry and kept the city in perpetual dusk.

Anton Furst's set designs for the film were an attempt to imagine what might have happened to New York City had there been no planning commission and had it been run by pure extortion and crime. Hence, there were no height restrictions, the skyscrapers were cantilevered toward the street rather than away, there were lots of bridges over the streets. In return, the city appeared to be extremely dark and claustrophobic. Director Tim Burton even stated himself that his take on Gotham was "As if Hell came sprouting out of the concrete and kept right on growing".

A majority of Gotham's street scenes in Batman were achieved with model buildings and matte paintings in the background. Furst deliberately mixed clashing architectural styles to make Gotham City the ugliest and bleakest metropolis imaginable.

For the second film, Batman Returns, Bo Welch took over the role of production designer, but unlike Furst, produced little to no illustrations himself. Welch wanted to introduce Russian fascist architecture; most of the actual design work was done by Tom Lay and Tim Flattery. Whereas Furst's designs showcased a lot of usual styes from Japan and Spain, the art department leaned more toward traditional Art Deco with World's Fair architecture imagery for Gotham.

When Joel Schumacher took Tim Burton's role as director he made Gotham more vibrant with bright neon lights and a vivid nightlife.

Legacy

In a 1992 comic book storyline, Destroyer, a man who was obsessed with Cyrus Pinkney's architecture blew up several Gotham buildings in order to reveal Pinkney's structures that were hidden; the editorial purpose behind that was to transform the city that was depicted in the comics to resemble the designs created by Furst for the 1989 Batman film.

Trivia

A map of Gotham City that was used in Batman was actually an inverted map of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The flag of Gotham City closely resembled the state flag of Indiana. It could be seen briefly in Harvey Dent's Office

At least 50% of the Warner Brothers lot was taken up with Gotham City sets for Batman Returns. The massive Gotham City sets were all constructed to be mobile, and were often shifted between days of filming. Michelle Pfeiffer routinely got lost on her way to filming each day.

The design of Gotham City was based on the work of architects Antoni Gaudí, Otto Wagner, Shia Takamatsu and Louis H. Sullivan.

Gotham in the Burton films is based on many formerly industrialized cities in the Northeastern U.S. (predominately New York) that suffered from years of recession and crime from the late 60s until the early 90s.